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Indonesia conducts large-scale bird flu drill

Indonesia, which has the highest death toll from bird flu
of any country, kicked off a three-day emergency drill Friday to deal with a
possible avian influenza pandemic, dpa
reported.

Several hundred government, health and law enforcement
officials were at the event, which will end on Sunday on the resort island of
Bali, to consider how to contain a possible widespread outbreak of the deadly
disease.

More than 50 foreigners, including 14 diplomats, were
taking part in the exercise, the largest-ever bird flu drill in Indonesia.

The simulation begin with a man presenting himself to a
clinic with symptoms of the avian influenza virus, followed by the isolation of
a village where a field hospital would be set up to treat people with flu-like
symptoms.

I Nyoman Kandun, director-general of the contagious disease
control at the Health Ministry, said the three-day simulation was aimed at
testing the country's preparedness for any such outbreak, which will involve
residents in several villages on the Indonesian resort island.

"The objective is to test the preparedness of bird flu
officials to manage an outbreak in case it happens," Kandun told
reporters.

"At this stage, there is no human-to-human
transmission in Indonesia," Kandun said. "But experts have warned
that if there is a pandemic outbreak, millions people in many countries in the
world, including Indonesia, will be infected with the virus."

Government officials had warned that more than 60 million
Indonesians, or about 35 per cent of the country's population, could be
infected with deadly bird flu if a bird flu pandemic strikes the world's fourth
most-populous country.

Indonesia has had 132 confirmed cases of bird flu, 107 of
them fatal, making it the world's worst-affected.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of
contracting the H5N1 virus, which is endemic in bird populations in most of
Indonesia.

Experts say the
danger is that the virus may evolve into a form that people can easily catch
and pass to one another, in which case the transmission rate would soar.